


Sunflowers Toward the Sun

by ofvanity



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fatherhood, Five Times, M/M, Mirror Universe, Teenage Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 02:16:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2049567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofvanity/pseuds/ofvanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You have a daughter?" Jim exclaims, surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunflowers Toward the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Five Ways Jim could have found out that Sulu has a daughter and the one way he actually did find out. The scenarios are unrelated to one another, so in each Demora is a different age and Kirk and Sulu are in a different stage of their relationship. One of them is mirror-verse, the rest are based in AOS canon.
> 
> This started [on Tumblr](http://of-vanity.tumblr.com/post/81513537914) as a not!fic, but as time went on I wanted more and more Dad!Sulu, so here we are.

**I. On the Battlefield**  
Jim’s comm has literally just died in his hand when he hears the grenade explode. He dives under his cover again but for a second he swears the blood curdling scream he hears is his own. He turns and Sulu and Bones are a few feet away from him, behind a large boulder. Sulu is on the jungle floor and Bones is pressing his hands down on Sulu, trying to stop him from bleeding. Kirk lays down some cover fire and then skids through the mud to reach them.

“What happened?”

"Shrapnel," Bones says, methodically running his tricorder down the length of Sulu’s body. "It cut across his arm when he tried to dodge it, this wound is too deep. it clipped an artery, damnit. he needs surgery Jim, immediately or I don’t know what can do for him."

Sulu laughs, a barking bitter sound that becomes near hysterical, “No fucking way doctor, you can’t let me die.”

"What do you mean, ‘let’ you, Lieutenant," Jim says, putting his hands over the wounds to relieve Bones but there’s so much blood, slipping through his fingers like a fountain, running and running down Sulu’s shirt to the jungle floor. It’s going so fast, Jim’s never seen anyone lose blood like this. "Staying alive is in your fucking contract. Look at me, Sulu."

Sulu turns to him, “You lost contact with the Enterprise didn’t you?”

"They have a lock on us, Sulu, they’ll beam us out any second now."

On the other side of the boulder, a grenade explodes in the mud. “Fast enough?”

"You’re not dying here, Sulu," Captain Kirk promises.

Sulu nods, “I can’t fucking die here,” but then he grabs the front of Kirk’s shirt with his other arm and pulls him in to say, “What’ll you tell my daughter?”

"Move, Jim," Bones orders and starts gauzing over the wound. The middle of an alien jungle in a firefight, is not where he wants to perform surgery but he can curb the bleeding.

"You have a daughter?" Jim asks, surprised, and he can see Bones in the corner of his eye, unphased as if he knew already.

Bones touches Sulu’s neck to get his attention to administer a hypo. “Tell me about her. Demora, right? What’s the color of her eyes?”

"Demora," Sulu’s mouth quirks up in a watery smile, "They’re almost black. they’re so potent, like she can see right through me."

"My kid’s like that too," Bones scoffs, inserts another hypo and says, almost softly, "I’mma get you back to her, young blood," but then Sulu’s eyes start to close.

Jim feels a seize of terror in his chest and reaches out to wake him again but the familiar sensation of the transporter stops him. He’s never been more grateful for the transporter in his life and for a moment, as Bones and the medical team are taking Sulu away, that gratitude terrifies him.

 **II. The Cargo Bay**  
There’s a package the size of Jim’s entire body coming off the cargo ships for the Enterprise. The delivery boy is huffing and puffing as he carries it into the cargo hold and Jim almost goes to help him but he stops him with an indignant huff. “I’ve got it, Captain.”

Jim stops and waves a hand, “Course.”

The rest of the boxes in the cargo hold are mostly mail for the crew and packages from their families. Sometimes they send things back to their families, but mostly the packages come one way. There’s not a lot to send back when most of their possessions are objects they keep on their person at all times.

“Hey!” Jim calls as he sees Sulu enter the cargo hold.

Sulu catches his eye and jogs over but instead of greeting Kirk, he starts shouting at the delivery boy. “Whoa! Be careful with that, you have no way of knowing what’s in there!”

Jim jabs him at the ribs, “Let the man do his job.”

Sulu nods and turns back to the delivery man. “Sorry, sir.”

“No sweat, just help me out here.”

Sulu agrees and helps the man set it down in the cargo hold, releasing it softly as it touches the ground. “You happen to know a LIeutenant Hikaru Sulu, Captain?”

“You’ve just met him yourself.” Jim says, distracted because he can see Yeoman Rand approaching with a PADD that’s probably full of paperwork. “Tell me the good news!” he greets her and busies himself with the business of this transaction.

“Your mother sent you a package from Sam’s planet, it’s in the back labeled machinery.”

“You think she sent the coil for my bike?” He asks, eyebrows flaring excitedly.

Yeoman Rand is completely unconcerned, shuffling tabs on the PADD. “Sure, Cap.”

“What in the world is that!” the delivery man exclaims.

Jim turns just in time to watch the package blossom open and really, blossom is the key word here, because the plant inside yawns open with thick, purple petals. Each petal is the size of Jim’s torso and the center of the plant is about the size of his head, bright yellow. Hikaru is practically jumping up and down.

“Oh my god, it’s fucking amazing!”

Inside the plant’s pot, there’s a note stuck into the dirt. “What is it?” Rand asks and so Jim takes a different question, hopefully seeming casually interested in whoever is sending his pilot boyfriend flowers. “Who's it from?”

Hikaru picks up the note and opens it to a singing card, playing some outdated Terran song. Holographic glitter and streamers burst out, followed by the projection of two girls, one a child, and the second a full grown woman. “Happy birthday, Daddy! I hope you like your present, we had to buy it on the black market!”

“She’s kidding,” the older woman chimes. “Happy birthday, ‘Karu! We miss you, okay, come home safe! Save the world!”

Hikaru is blushing and laughing, smiling wider than Jim’s ever seen and blushing more brightly than Jim has ever been capable of inciting. Jim reels, stuck on several points in the sentence. He starts with, “Daddy?”

 **III. In Private Quarters**  
They find themselves grappling and wrestling each other to the bed. Hikaru’s shirt is caught under one arm while the rest of it has made it over his neck, Jim’s was ripped off in a poorly-thought-out attempt to be sexy and slipped down his shoulders in their flailing. His pants are open and helpfully grinding into Hikaru when Hikaru hooks his leg behind Jim’s knee and tosses his weight to flip them.

Before Jim can protest, Hikaru is kissing him breathlessly rough and then sucking on his tongue when Jim tries to talk through it. When Hikaru bites, he melts into it, relaxing his muscles for a minute and taking it all in. Hikaru’s hand is in his boxers, stroking him in awkward, but heavenly jerks and Jim can’t even think of stopping to take off the rest of his clothes or to breathe.

Until he absolutely has to and he’s scoring his nails down Hikaru’s back, bucking near frantic into his hand for the pressure and rough friction. Their kiss breaks and Hikaru looms over him, biting Jim’s lips until they’re red and chapped and sucking on them to soothe them. Jim moans and kisses him, pushing his boxers out of the way because they’re hurting more than they’re helping now. Jim breaks the kiss this time, “C’mon, Hikaru, I want your mouth,” he pleads. “I want to come down your throat.”

Hikaru growls into Jim’s mouth and bites his lips again, drawing small spots of blood on the edge of the most chapped parts. Jim is melting further and further, the fight coming out of his body with the feeling of HIkaru’s hot erection against his stomach, heating him through a layer of clothes and he whines with anticipation. “Hikaru,” he groans, “Hikaru.”

A loud trill sounds through the room and Jim can barely identify it as a comm ringing before Hikaru is breaking the kiss and throwing himself off of Jim. Jim’s eyes attempt adjusting to the light, because Hikaru has a larger holo than most people projecting on his wall and someone is video calling him, blasting bright light into the room. He turns in time to see Hikaru slap the web camera off to the side before the call opens.

“Hey Karu! Oh I think your webcam is skewed?” A woman greets, ‘I can’t see you or anything.”

“I know,” he sighs, and pulls his shirt back on, adjusting his pants as well, “Computer, lights to twenty percent.”

The room’s near pitch black darkness brightens into a dim light and Jim sits up, searching for the remains of his yellow command shirt. “What the hell, man?” he complains.

“Is this a bad time?” The woman asks.

“Yeah, can you tell Demi to give me a few minutes, tell her I’m finishing a task on the bridge or something.”

“You want me to lie to our daughter?”

Jim, pulling on one of Hikaru’s dirty shirts he found on the floor, feels ice run in his veins.

“I’m not exactly decent, Susan, give me a minute.”

Susan laughs without malice, “Okay, okay, I’ll call you again in five, but hurry it’s bedtime.”

“Thank you,” he sighs as the call disconnects.

The room is silent again and Jim presses his hands into his eyes. They’ve only been dating steadily for a month but even that amount of time is enough to announce you have offspring and ex-wife and current-baby-mama or whatever the fuck. Shit, Bones dropped it in less than thirty seconds after meeting Jim and he’s been dancing around Hikaru for a year and a half.

“You probably have questions you want me to answer and that’s cool. I’m willing to answer any and everything,” Sulu says instead of anything else, anything like, “I should’ve told you,” or “fuck you for thinking you knew me” or “let’s get married and raise my daughter together.”

JIm feels the ice in his eyes and his spine. He stands up and says, heading straight to the door. “No questions, I don’t want anything from you.”

 **IV. In Mirror Worlds**  
When the door slides open and Captain Kirk is finally off-duty, Hikaru has already been waiting for three hours. His brandy glass has been been topped up two separate times by now and the liquid remaining stirs in the glass as he tilts the edges carelessly. He’s not drunk but his face is still hot and his tongue is still numb.

“Lieutenant, are you lost? These are the captain’s quarters.” Kirk’s personal security detail stride in after Kirk, phasers at the ready.

“I’m not armed, gentlemen, I just came to have a conversation with your captain.”

They glance at Jim, waiting for orders. Jim scratches at his collarbones, considering Sulu with narrowed eyes. “Search him.”

Sulu stands up to comply with the order as one security officer manhandles him. The other is posted besides Kirk, phaser at the ready with his back tight in a straight line. “Quite the pair of roaming hands, there, ensign.” Sulu remarks and is met with a glare. “Don’t get me wrong, I prefer a little confidence. Usually, I have to convince the Captain to fuck me before he builds the nerve.”

“He’s clean,” the security officer decides and steps back.

“He always gets it up, though,” Sulu says and winks at the security officer. “You know Captain Kirk never disappoints.”

“That’s enough, leave us,” Kirk says to the security team and they seem happy to comply, scurrying after the door. Once it shuts, Kirk presses his lips together in a stern frown. “So I suppose you spoke with Demora then.”

Sulu sits back down in his seat by the simulated fireplace. “I did.”

Kirk saunters over and picks the tumbler out of Sulu’s hand, sipping it. “And what? You’re here to warn me?”

“You could say that.”

Captain Kirk scoffs and pulls the last of the brandy in a single gulp. “She crossed me, Sulu. Nobody crosses me. Save your weepy begging. Part of parenthood is learning there are some things you can’t protect your children from. I am one of them.”

Sulu laughs, “She’s not the one who needs protection. You are, Jim.”

Kirk resists the urge to roll his eyes. “As if I’d let you anywhere near my security detail, even if I needed help taking care of a single pirate.”

Sulu looks stunned for a moment and then sucks his teeth before chuckling again. “Huh. You know what actually, forget it.”

He stands to leave but Kirk stops him with a hand on his arm, “What?”

“Nothing,” Sulu grins, jovial and menacing at once.

“What is it!” Kirk turns on his heel to push Sulu back into the chair.

“Nothing, sir.” Sulu says, his shit-eating grin growing from ear to ear. “Just that if you’re stupid enough to underestimate my daughter, you deserve the pain she’s going to rain down you.” Sulu shrugs, “That’s all.”

Kirk scowls. “Get the fuck out.”

 **V. On Federation Soil**  
There's a Federation outpost on New Vulcan, flooded with Terran volunteers and emergency relief teams. They've been there since the establishment of the colony, of course, but with new recruits arriving everyday, the post has gotten larger and larger. The Federation caps the size of it eventually and orders the Enterprise to help send home some of the teams after taking a 48-hour shore leave on the planet.

To Jim, it sounds like Christmas. Especially after months being away from Earth and civilization in general. But when he announces it to the crew, there is a variety of responses from his team. Spock's forehead pinches minutely and Uhura is immediately looking at him like when they speak telepathically. Bones is silent for a moment before clapping Sulu on the back. He announces, "Congrats you lucky bastard," and leaves. Sulu is pale and unresponsive, jaw clenching like Jim has just signed his death certificate.

He wants to ask what's the problem, but then Sulu is standing at attention and says, "Thank you, Captain. Are we dismissed?"

Jim shrugs, "Sure."

He thinks nothing of it until the day they land on New Vulcan. He loses track of his boyfriend immediately after docking and wanders around the station, answering questions with vague answers. When he finally spots him, he loses him immediately thereafter in the crowd. One second he was standing there, across the room, and in the pass of a few people, he was gone. Jim pushes his way through the crowd and when he’s closer, can finally see why.

Hikaru is kneeling on the floor in a bear hug with a small girl. She looks to be about seven or eight, wearing a miniature Command Gold Uniform. Her hair is curled in impeccable rivulets around her face. The first thing that strikes Jim is that she’s adorable and the second is that she is not Vulcan. “Lieutenant?” Jim starts but the rest of the sentence dies in his throat when an older woman, about Jim’s age, wearing a volunteer uniform, spots them and bolts into their embrace. The force of her launch pitches them all over and they fall in a laughing heap. They look like a family.

It isn’t until Sulu reaches through the tangle of limbs and hair to grab the woman’s face that Jim realizes what they are to each other. Sulu is kissing the woman in ecstatic greetings and the little girl looks like the perfect mix of their two faces. They are a family.

Jim steels himself against the sudden ache in his chest and walks away, making his way through the crowd. He’d been dating Sulu only for a year or so, but he realizes now that they could have spent seven years together and it wouldn’t have mattered. Jim was only a placeholder.

 **VI. The Academy**  
Sulu is sprawled out on the couch of Bones’ apartment, half-asleep with a vomit-covered washcloth tossed carelessly over his face. Demora, eight months old, is asleep in the bouncer beside him on the floor, her heavy infant head lolling against her neck pillow. Jim glances between Bones and Sulu, frowning. “What.”

“Sulu’s got a kid.” Bones says flippantly, rifling through the fridge. “Sulu has procreated.” He tosses a head of lettuce into the air and catches it before setting it aside on the counter, “Sulu has a spawn.” His next trick is rolling tomatoes onto the counter precariously until they meet the lettuce. “Sulu is the father of a child.” Bones tosses a bag of garlic at Jim who barely catches it in time. “An infant to be exact. Now shut up because he just put that baby to sleep and if you wake her up, so help me god, I’ll let him castrate you.”

Jim just turned 22. “No way,” he says, setting the garlic cloves down. “Sulu’s my boyfriend, the whole point of our relationship is that our dicks are present.”

Bones rolls his eyes. “Shut the hell up.”

Bones is making pasta for dinner and for once, Jim does as he’s told and shuts the hell up. Instead, he watches Bones cook and navigate the kitchen with expert surgeon’s hands, thinking nothing at all. The smell of the food is what wakes Sulu eventually and he steps into the kitchen with an infant on his hip. She’s got drool on her face and soft fat rolls on her legs and Sulu's nose.

“You have a daughter?”

“Hey, babe,” Sulu says instead, planting a wet kiss on Jim’s cheek. “Are you alright?”

“Who’s her mother?”

“My girlfriend from high school.”

“Do you still talk to her?”

Hikaru shrugs, “Not so much talk as scream at each other in various places in my neighborhood.”

Bones laughs and makes kissy faces at the baby. She laughs and bounces in place, finally shrieking with joy. “Demora,” Bones coos, “Can you say ‘doctor?”

“Bones,” Jim sighs, exasperated.

Bones sucks his teeth at him. “Jim, this baby girl is the sweetest thing in this room and your infancy is getting annoying in comparison. Get your act together, there’s worse ways you could have found out about this.” He turns back to the baby, kissing her round cheeks noisily. “Isn’t that right baby Demora?”

She shrieks in response and Bones almost looks proud.

Jim meets Hikaru’s eye over their babble of interaction. Hikaru’s mouth quirks in a lopsided grin. He’s got creases on his face from sleep and a vomit-covered washcloth over his shoulder. He smells like baby lotion and Jim tries to collect his thoughts for a moment but the scent of him is distracting. It's the same Sulu musk with a dash of baby smell.

He looks the same, too, that same Sulu grin and sleeveless shirts only now his biceps flex around the body of a baby. And when he laughs, the baby turns to him like a sunflower towards the sun. "She's already got parents, Jim, I'm not going to ask you to pay college tuition if that's what you're thinking."

Jim nods slowly, trying to catch up to his thoughts that ran away with Sulu's capable hands caught in Demora's tiny baby fist. Finally, he decides. “Can I hold her?”


End file.
